GLENDORA – Entering Wednesday’s Sierra League showdown between the Chino Hills High School and St. Lucy’s Priory softball teams, there was plenty of debate about who was the top dog in the area’s toughest league.

By late Wednesday afternoon, the Huskies made sure there was little doubt.

Chino Hills scored five runs in the fifth and sixth innings and relied on pitcher Nikki Innamorato to do the rest in an 11-2 win over St. Lucy’s. The visiting Huskies improved to 18-3 overall and 3-0 in league. St. Lucy’s fell to 15-4 and 2-1.

“I think the first time two, 2-0 teams meet, it’s important that you win it,” Chino Hills coach Mike Southworth said. “I tell our kids all the time that we just try to take it one practice at a time and one game at a time, but it was a good win.”

Chino Hills took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and was nursing it all the way into the bottom of the fourth inning. That’s when the Regents’ Brandi Harkness blasted a two-run homer to right field to give her team the lead. It didn’t last long, and that’s something Southworth felt his friends to the north need to understand.

“Where we’re from, they know about our players and I don’t think out here they have too much of a clue,” Southworth said. “What it is, is that we’ve got five seniors who have been with me since they were freshmen and all of them are good. And when you’ve got eight kids out there that are literally going Division 1, they can play.

“It doesn’t surprise me, I’ve had them for a long time. We’ve been to the CIF semifinals three years in a row, so we’ve had some tough games.”

The Huskies got five hits off St. Lucy’s ace Danielle O’Toole in the fifth.

The big blow was a two-run double by Brogan Hoenisch. Prior to that, Alexis Martinez scored on a single by Patricia Parks. Parks later scored on a close play at the plate on a fielder’s choice and Tannon Snow scored on an errant throw into center field to stop a stolen-base attempt.

The Huskies were back at it again in the sixth. This time, they broke out the heavy metal courtesy of a grand slam by Garie Blando and the rout was on.

Beside the one mistake to Harkness, Innamorato was stingy. The senior allowed just three hits and struck out nine in a performance that, once again, Southworth felt should have surprised nobody from the 626 area code.

“That’s typical of her,” Southworth said. “She has like 70 wins in four years for us. She’s been huge for us. Huge games. She’s won more games in the CIF playoffs than any other pitcher in the state, 11 of them. And yet she’s not an All-Valley player by the Tribune. It’s like, `OK, she’s a second thought.’ She was the best pitcher on the field here.

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